On balance, changes and choices

I wanted to call this article “Perspectives”, as in life it all depends on how you choose to look at things. I’m based in Romania (a country in Europe, Transylvania is a part of it), where now it’s cold and snowing. But this week I’m traveling with work in Orlando, in the US, where it’s warm and nice. Pretty cool right? Lots of people envy me… I suppose.

On the other side, today’s my birthday and I’m pretty far from the ones I’d really love to be with. Can’t say I’m sad, I’ll be with them shortly. Till then, I get to have the longest birthday ever (in Romania it already started yesterday) even if this is more like a normal day for me. I’ve never quite figured it out yet what is THE thing I love doing the most on my birthday.

Last year my boyfriend took me out for dinner on what was back then our first date. This year I’ve metaphorically traveled the world at Epcot Disneyland in Orlando. It’s a park that besides rides, has all these countries represented through landmark buildings, shows, cuisine and drinks. It’s super awesome. Then this morning I’ll be heading home literally. Still on my birthday 🙂

So a potential title for this article could be “How to spend your birthday”. But then again, this is not what I want this article to be about.

I think what’s actually unsettling me now is a mix between balance, change and choices. How do you keep your balance and sanity in a constantly changing world where you’ll always have to make choices factoring in both internal and external factors. And based on all that, how do you live and deal with the consequences of your choices 🙂 I know, lots of questions and a more philosophical approach I suppose.

Balance

I never believed balance = 8 hours work + 8 hours of “free time” + 8 hours of sleep. That’s just bulls**t to me. I believe balance is more like being able to be happy with the way you’re joggling those things that are important to you in the present moment.

Do you want to put 24/7 of your time for a few months to learn something new, or start your own business? As long as you don’t drag it for years, by all means do it. Use that as your source of energy to keep going without burning out.

Change

One moment you have your life figured out, the second something happens and all of a sudden priorities change and so do you. This year I hoped for some changes but as it looks my plans were not sufficiently ambitious compared to what the new plans might be. Doesn’t mean I’m not excited, just pondering on how I’ll have to push myself in order to keep up.

Any change I suppose means that you’ll need to stretch yourself more and more. While still keeping your balance. Or your new definition of balance, which might be quite different. Ideally, big changes should not happen all at once. Try and make once change at a time, in each life aspect. Otherwise the level of stress will not allow you to redefine your balance and you’ll end up having to reconsider and reevaluate, while putting everything on hold. And life might not have this break in plan for you, so you’ll just end up in a spot you don’t want to be in.

Choices

Based on our values, which are the fundaments defining our concept of balance, we do accept changes that come our way (or not). These changes might be wanted or not, provoked or not. But those are the choices we make, to accept them coming our way and if that’s not a choice, then figuring out how to respond to them and adapt.

It’s so much easier to slalom through these choices when you have a purpose and you can clearly see how things will lead you there. Or so you think. It gets complicated and imbalanced and stressful when you feel life, or someone else, is actually controlling your life and all these changes and choices are something you just have to do to follow along. When was the last time you assessed this and really thought about how to be in control of your own life, purpose and decisions?

It’s morning now, a new day, a new start. How will you manage today to get you closer to what do you want?

As for myself, I’m flying home today and nothing can make me happier 🙂